Week 8: Teacher Perks

Being a teacher has its inherent perks. There are obvious benefits, such as summers off and collecting a paycheck for 12 months out of the year. Being a teacher means I do not have to use vacation time to spend time with family during the holidays and I have a generous amount of sick days should I need them. It is somewhat painless to schedule a day off with no questions asked. These are things that keep me in a profession that has allowed me to visit foreign countries in the summer months and do a lot of hiking and visiting with friends on the weekends. 

Some perks are the kind you wouldn't know about if you were not a part of our community. This school year the parent-teacher organization has gifted teachers a cute little double-walled cup with our names on them and a bucket full of candy in the teachers' lounge, along with various snacks and fruit throughout the school year. These small gestures go a long way to making me feel appreciated and welcome. 

Two traditions at our school that are very creative and morale-boosting are the pre-parent-teacher conference tailgate soup party. Since teachers do not get to go home in the time before the conferences, parents see to it that teachers are well-fed with their delicious pot-luck type dinner. The parent organization arranges for parents to bring in crockpots full of hearty homemade soups. It is a fun way to try new yummy soups, and visit with coworkers.

The second fun event is when the parents coordinate pies for each teacher before leaving for Thanksgiving break. The day before Thanksgiving, our office is slammed full of both store-bought and homemade pies, as each teacher gets to take a pie home for their family. This is another pleasurable dividend because we have things to share, and it is yet another way to try something new.

Every year we have to get our school picture taken for the school yearbook. Now look. I have always enjoyed school. I liked being a student. I like being a teacher. I like getting my picture taken. It is fun for me. In my entire career, I have never bought a yearbook, but knowing my pictures are lying dormant on someone's shelf makes me smile. You know what also makes me smile? Getting the free package of school pictures that I get every year. You may ask why? Why do you like getting your pictures? What could you ever do with 30 wallet-sized photos? Let me explain the benefit of this perk.

Since I don't teach elementary school, it is unlikely I will be cutting these photos up and giving one to my students. No, not my style anyway. What I do with my free school pictures is more sly and devious, and much more fun. The school pictures are integral in a two-part plan. The first part of the plan is to hide them among my family's Christmas presents. The second part is to hide them among my family's possessions without them knowing. These pictures are revealed later, throughout the year, and of course, is a pleasant surprise as they are greeted with my smiling face. My school pictures have turned up as the face on a snuggie box, hidden in a grandfather clock, and mainly taped inside of gift boxes. The best hiding places include wallets, purses, book bags, and even in cars. 

In 2019 my school picture made it to my besties' glasses case, coin purse, cell phone cover, and later discovered in a running hydration belt. 

I don't know what it costs the picture folks to supply teachers with these extra set of prints, but it is a tradition that I have had a lot of fun with. I like to hear the stories of where my family found their pictures and when. They anticipate the pictures, and while there is a bit of eye-rolling, I think they get a little enjoyment out of my silly antics. Lately, though, the picture folks have been cutting teachers out of the picture prints! This year I had to enter my information into the website to see the pictures, and then pay to order! Um, no!!! This deeply wounded me, as I will not shell out the money to get school pictures that will end up all over my parents' house (even though it makes me laugh every time I see them). Now it is not that I cannot shell out the money, it is the fact that I came up with this goofy activity because I thought, hmm, I have these pictures, what the heck will I do with them? I invented a creative way to distribute them, and now I have no product!

Free school pictures. Yet another reason this school year is different. I have been denied a simple pleasure. Maybe I will invent another fun tradition as a result. The lack of school pictures could compel me to get more creative. Not having pictures may be another perk and I don't even know it.